Hey Everyone,
In order to separate the core of my game from its content, i’m learning to use dlc.
So far so good, in less than an hour of trials/errors i’ve been able to setup a workflow that allows me to install the game core separately from its content.
I’m really happy with that because all my content is loaded dynamically at runtime and i was afraid about loosing some links etc. But it works super fine, bravo to epic’s team^^
Yet i’ve noticed that it works only when not using pak files.
The reason is that when using pak files, the pak for the content has the same name as the pak for the game so the dlc overwrites the game content when deployed:
I’ve always happily used pak files for the previous versions of my game, so i’m a bit hesitant to stop.
So my questions:
1/ I couldn’t find a way to choose a name for a dlc pak file. Is it possible ?
2/ If not, is it ok to release a game not using pak file ?
In other words, what are the advandages i would loose/gain by stopping to use pak file, beside elegantly packing everything in one file ?
I’m thinking:
- compression (does pak significantly reduces the size of the package ?)
- security (does pak protects the content from piracy with some encryption ?)
- performance (does pak significantly slow the game due to real time extraction in game ?)
- reliability during transport/installation (one large file more reliable than multiple small ones ?)
Except for the security part, i could do all the testing myself, but i’d be interesting in experienced users’ opinion, are there any good practice in the professionnal world (i’m a hobbyist with no relation to the gaming industry) ? Is pak merely a gadget to reduce the final number of files or is it mandatory to any serious release ?
Cheers
Cedric